Digital cameras are used to capture digital images such as photographs. The digital cameras typically store the digital images as high quality image data such as RAW data, or as compressed data such as JPEG. Most commercially available digital cameras include non-volatile data storage in the form of memory cards, for example, SD, SDHC, or the like storage media that can store the RAW, JPEG, and other data representative of the digital images captured by a user.
Digital camera users often share their digital photographs with others. Some users connect their digital camera to a personal computing device such as a desktop or a laptop computer, transfer the digital images desired to be shared onto the computer's hard drive, and then burn the digital images onto portable digital storage media such as CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs. Other users upload their digital images onto the World Wide Web and allow others to download the uploaded digital images from the website. Many users also distribute their digital images to others by attaching one or more digital images to an e-mail message and sending the attached digital images via e-mail servers to intended recipients.
The above-described digital image distribution methods typically require compression of the original digital image and result in a reduction in image quality. In addition, such methods not only require the use of devices e.g., a laptop) in addition to the digital camera and memory card, but also the use of communication networks such as the Internet and the World Wide Web. Moreover, the above-described methods do not provide users with the ability to spontaneously share memorable or especially appealing digital photographs with other people contemporaneously present at various events such as parties, family gatherings, sporting events, or the like without relying on a an additional computing device and Internet access.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method of distribution of digital images that overcomes the shortcomings of the aforementioned methods.